Incandescent bulb’s future dims

MSN ^ | 11-11-2007 | MSN

[Westlander]

If U.S. lawmakers have their way, the lights may soon go out on Thomas Edison's greatest invention -- the incandescent light bulb. The 19th-century inventor brought illumination to the world's fingertips, but according to Congress, his invention isn't efficient enough for an age anxious about energy supplies.

"Only 10% of the power used by today's incandescent bulbs is emitted as light, while the other 90% is released as heat," Rep. Jane Harman, D-Calif., said when she introduced her legislation to ban standard light bulbs.

To eliminate this waste, Harman has proposed legislation that would effectively eliminate incandescent light bulbs from store shelves nationwide as early as 2012.

[vpintheak]

I have a flourescent light outside my front door just as a test. It takes about 5 minutes for it to get to full light right now and it’s barely reached zero. It will be interesting to see how it acts when the temp. drops.

[Westlander]

http://www.thegreenguide.com/blog/freshfinds/340

And CFL’s with a cold weather ballast are available.

[matthew fuller]

I wasn’t beating, really- most units that I saw when shopping for the CO (Carbon monoxide) alarm were smoke/CO2 detector/alarms.

[maine-iac7]

Just looked at that bulb and it has a big warning about containg MERCURY and about how to dispose of the bulb!! Geesh.

Don't know about you - but I'll be screaming my head off to stop this - I knew it was coming, England already passed the same thing.

The federal gov't needs to stay out of our houses - the Fed Gov't that gave us the toilet that needs double flushing - The "One size fits all" govt' (I have my own septic, own well, on a ridge surrounded by bogs - high water table no matter the drought. I DO NOT need a low flush toilet)

But, Folks THIS is far worse...These bulbs are deadly if broken! (Ever break a bulb? Your kids ever Break a bulb?)

Have you READ the

hazmat instructions

on how these little bombs need to be disposed of? Do you have a haz mat suit?

Not to worry, they tell you all the stuff to put on the simulate one....here's the rules - hard to find - I suspicion because people will say "WHAT!!!!"

What if I accidentally break a fluorescent bulb in my home?

The most important thing to remember is to never use a vacuum . A standard vacuum will spread mercury containing dust throughout the area as well as potentially contaminating the vacuum. What you should do is:

Keep people and pets away from the breakage area so that the mercury in the powder inside the bulb is not accidentally tracked into other areas.

Ventilate the area by opening windows.

Wear appropriate personal protective equipment, such as rubber gloves, safety glasses, old clothing or coveralls, and a dust mask (if you have one) to keep bulb dust and glass from being inhaled.

Carefully remove the larger pieces and place them in a secure closed container, preferably a glass container with a metal screw top and gasket seal like a canning jar.

Next, begin collecting the smaller pieces and dust. You can use a disposable broom and dustpan or two stiff pieces of paper to scoop up pieces.

Put all material into the glass container. Pat the area with the sticky side of duct, packing or masking tape. Wipe the area with a damp cloth or paper towels to pick up fine particles.

Put all waste and materials used to clean up the bulb in the glass container and label it “Universal Waste - broken lamp”.

Take the container for recycling as universal waste. To determine where your town has made arrangements for recycling of this type of waste

(link for my state

http://www.maine.gov/dep/rwm/homeowner/fluorescent.htm

...

Are you willing to go through this - are you willing to gamble your children will never break a bulb when you're not around?

And how the he*l is this helping our environment 0 it takes energy to recycle...

I tell you what I suspicion: Just like the Global Warming scam, there's lots of money to be made by forcing everyone to buy these bulbs - I'd love to see the stockholders names - well, of course, certain people will have proxy accounts - but mark my word...this is going to get some lawmakers very rich.

This is INSANE...Not withstanding, as a poster mentioned, that they DON'T WORK with dimmers - or motion detectors, (and who is the Fed Gov't to determine we can't have them? My motion detector lights are vital for me, a handicapped ole lady, when I get up at night and my motion detector porch light is a vital safety need) *** How can the get away with demanding every household will contain several breakable highly toxic bulbs???

Can't this be defeated on that premise alone? Where the CDC on safety not only for us but our children???? (Good thing they aren't coming from China!)

We need to do a massive alert on this...sent to everyone in your email box and tell them to do the same - get it on YouTube - we have to nip this in the bud.

In the meantime, I'm stocking up. I'll be the little ole granny, shades drawn, knitting by the light of my contraband light bulbs.

As well, I'm setting up tow enterprises: A handy haz-mat box, complete with clothing and glass jars with seals....and then, an underground network for selling contraband bulbs.

[Westlander]

For where you live, did you buy one with a cold weather ballast? My guess is probably not since it takes 5 minutes to get bright. Say Hi to the moose for me.

[Redcloak]

Why not LED lamps?.......

That wouldn't be any fun. They don't contain any mercury.

[matthew fuller]

I had some premature failures with two of an off-brand from Lowes ( Star?) but all GE’s and Sylvania’s are good to go- haven’t lost one of those yet, and I know it’s been over a year.

[Westlander]

Dimmable CFL’s have been out for years. You have 100 times more mercury in an oral thermometer than a CFL. Search engine’s can be your friends.

[maine-iac7]

Tell who to kiss off? I am purchasing these light bulbs as my CHOICE. They use less energy and for the most part work the same as an incandescent. Using less energy means lower power bills. Taking waste to the proper locations is just smart as there is no need to pollute whenever possible

Yes, it IS YOUR CHOICE - and it should be,.

It should ALSO be MY CHOICE NO TO - that is the point.

First toilets, now light bulbs - by LAW - you don't mind living under Communism?

It's not the Bulbs! It's our freedom, it's Communism, not the free market.

And Hillary has stated that we 'little people' need all these decsions made for us -

Make your own choices, but don't make MINE!

[Smokin' Joe]

The heat is not wasted here for more than six months out of the year. GO figure. Some nit from a warmer climate proposes doing away with a what is a useful by-product for someone who lives elsewhere.

Interesting the shape of the new bulbs resembles a screw.

[PugetSoundSoldier]

While I use CFLs in most locations of the house, I really think Ms. Harman is out to lunch...

After all, her husband - Sidney Harman, founder of Harman Industries (Harman Kardon, Infinity, JBL, Proceed, Revel, and a bunch of other audio brands) - made his fortune on tube amps (about 5% efficient). And his speakers are - at best - 2% efficient (usually 0.2-0.5%).

If we want to save some electricity, how about Jane turn to her husband and enforce Harman simply doubling the efficiency of all their stereo equipment?

[dfwgator]

How many bureaucrats does it take to change a light bulb?

[this_ol_patriot]

One warning, while the tubes don't generate much heat the ballast in the base does. If put into an enclosed fixture they can generate enough heat to cook the socket and make it brittle or worse case cause a small fire. Even enclosed fixtures rated for CFL's will cook. We are finding this out at work when we have to replace sockets because they cracked due to heat in fixtures designed for CFL's.. This is with the pin type CFL.

The answer is to have fixtures with the ballast in them instead of the bulb, like standard fluorescent fixtures. The ballast can be beefier and cooled better and all you need to replace is the bulb and not a bulb and ballast every time one burns out. The downside is new fixtures will need installed and they are more expensive although this will make the bulbs cheaper.

Another thing to consider is Power Factor. See this:

Power Factor

[maine-iac7]

.' I do care about saving $350-400 a year on my electric bill AND having to replace the bulbs 1/3 as often as before (especially those hard to reach lights).

Fine - Your Choice

But let me have MY choice as well, or has the re-education/indoctrination progressed so far that the sheeple don't understand Communism for what it is?

This is NOT the governments decision to make. It's for the free market - you're are free to buy the ones you want - and I am free to keep my motion lights

[ansel12]

LEDs bulbs are plentiful but expensive, I had six of the cheapest ones on the market but I had to return five of them.

I am one of the LED nuts and am really looking forward to the quality LED lightbulbs coming down in price.

The LEDs themselves continue to improve in brightness and color, my newer AAA key chain flashlight uses the Cree.

The Cree LED is brighter than the older ones but the life is only 50,000 hours instead of 100,000 hours.

[maine-iac7]

OMG....do you think that trash doesn’t go all in one place eventually??

Exactly - and we are talking about lead -

[maine-iac7]

OOOps I mean MERCURY - much worse than lead

[Eva]

when Al and Tipper start using the fluorescent bulbs in the lamps by their bed and in their dining room chandelier, I’ll begin to think about using them.

[GOP Poet]

fluorescent bulbs make us literally green. From a filmmakers persective everyone would look green on camera here on out. How utterly stupid! Fluorescent lights are also unhealthy. Can we get these yahoos out of office yet? I can’t buy oil paint any more in California. This is scary.

[sphinx]

I’ve been switching each time an incandescent bulb burns out. The CFL’s work fine. I bought one that had a harsh light but that was my mistake in not reading the label carefully. With that one exception, I can’t tell a difference in light quality. The big plus for me is that I’ve been able to step up the lumens in a number of places.